In our world of instant gratification when consumers decide they need something they usually need it immediately, in other words, more often then not, consumers do not think about local businesses until they need a local business. In the digital era, of today, consumers relay on the internet to find most of their information and this includes local businesses.
When consumers search online, search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo use the consumers’ location to customize search results. According to Search Engine Watch, more then 60% of on-line searches now focus on returning results for local companies across a variety of devices. Thus when a consumer performs a search for a product, that your business carries, or a service that your business offers, in your city, your website would show up in the local results at the top of the page, IF it has been optimized locally. Statistics show that consumers click on paid links (the pay-per-click ads in the side bar) only about 6% percent of the time, studies show that reading the local newspaper is declining on a massive scale, down 40-80% depending upon the location. The yellow pages is not immune to this new searching trend, use of printed phone books has dramatically decreased over the past decade, coinciding with the dramatic increase of search engine use. These statistics mean your money is much better spent on search engine optimization over pay-per-click or print advertising, especially for local markets.
Without local optimization your website is nearly invisible to consumers who could be searching for products or services, that you offer, right now. Even if you are already have SEO strategies in place, if these are not targeting your local demographic then your website is NOT working for you! Local searches are up nearly 60% and that number is only going to get higher, now is the time to get your business noticed on line.
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